Political declaration on the implementation of the United Nations
Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons
A/RES/72/1
education and awareness-raising campaigns to prevent trafficking in persons. We
welcome the designation of 30 July as the World Day against Trafficking in
Persons. 3
4.
We reiterate our strong condemnation of trafficking in persons, especially
women and children, which continues to pose a serious challenge to humanity,
violates and impairs the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedo ms and
constitutes a crime and a serious threat to human dignity and physical integrity, and
a challenge to sustainable development, and which requires the implementation of a
comprehensive approach that includes partnerships and measures to prevent such
trafficking, to prosecute and punish the traffickers and to identify and protect the
victims, as well as a criminal justice response commensurate to the serious nature of
the crime. In this regard, we encourage the development of policies, programmes
and national strategies to prevent and combat trafficking in persons.
5.
We reaffirm the crucial importance of universal ratification of the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 4 and the Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime, 5 taking into consideration the central role of those instruments in
the fight against trafficking in persons, and urge Member States that have not yet
done so to consider ratifying or acceding to the Convention and the Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, as a matter of priority. We urge States parties to those instrumen ts to
implement them fully and effectively, and welcome the decision of the Conference
of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime to continue the process of establishing a mechanism for the review of the
implementation of the Convention and the Protocols thereto.
6.
We also reaffirm the importance of universal ratification and implementation
of other relevant international instruments that address trafficking in persons.
7.
We reaffirm our recognition that “trafficking in persons” shall mean the
recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of
the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of
deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or
receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control
over another person, for the purpose of exploitation, which includes, at a minimum,
the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation,
forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the
removal of organs, as set forth in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
8.
We express solidarity with and compassion for victims and survivors, call for
full respect of their human rights, and, recognizing their role as agents of change in
the global fight against trafficking in persons, encourage further consideration of
incorporating their perspective and experience in all efforts to prevent and combat
trafficking in persons. We will provide appropriate care, assistance and services for
their recovery and rehabilitation, working with civil society and other relevant
partners. We will also undertake appropriate measures for access to justice and
protections for victims in criminal justice processes, including measures to ensure
that identified victims are not penalized for having been trafficked and that they do
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3
4
5
2/6
See resolution 68/192.
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2225, No. 39574.
Ibid., vol. 2237, No. 39574.
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